Recipes and news from the makers of Zest Recipe Manager

Grapes are a fruit we appreciate in many different forms: fresh, pressed, fermented and dried. One simple but under-appreciated method of using grapes is roasting. This salad aims to showcase the sweet deliciousness of roasted grapes by adding just a couple of other components — cheese and lemon — as contrast.

Roasted Grape and Blue Cheese Salad

Recipe Type: Salad

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 4 (as a side)

A salad that is simple yet a little different. Roasting grapes concentrates their flavour, which is offset beautifully by soft cheese.

Ingredients

200g rocket, washed

400g grapes (any seedless variety)

60g blue cheese

1/2 lemon

3 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Set aside around 8-10 of the grapes to serve fresh. Halve these grapes lengthwise.

Add the remaining grapes to a small casserole dish. Toss with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Roast until soft but still holding some shape (25-30 minutes).

Using a slotted spoon, remove the grapes from the dish and set aside.

Add the juice and zest of the lemon half and the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the grape juices in the dish. Whisk well, making sure you incorporate the delicious sticky bits! Check for seasoning, then transfer the resulting dressing to a small jug for serving.

To serve: add the rocket to a salad bowl, crumble and scatter the blue cheese on the leaves then top with fresh and roasted grapes.

Dress the salad just before eating.

Notes

As the grapes cook they release a sweet and sticky juice that is too good to waste. Make sure you roast in a dish that will retain all that goodness for the dressing.

You could try other soft cheeses in this salad, just make sure they can stand up to the sweetness of the grapes.